Movie Review: THE VOICES

[youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hQpV9Q0A7E”]

In the pantheon of talking animal movies, The Voices is a decided outcast. Animals aren’t the only unusual talkers here either – there are also a couple chatty, severed heads in the fridge.  Okay, The Voices is an outcast in every imaginable way. From anything.  The Voices is its own genre. Somewhere between a dream movie, a slasher, a dark comedy, a goofy rom-com, and by ending something REALLY unexpected, is where it lies directly in the center. But that’s the charm of the film in that by playing with these different tones and genre tropes it’s wildly unpredictable and superbly entertaining. Prepare yourself.

Ryan Reynolds is Jerry a quiet, handsome office clerk that all the girls have a crush on. They don’t know that Jerry has some serious issues, though. He has deep rooted psychological issues, and not taking his medication leads to a self aware imagination becoming really, really strange. After a date with one of the girls goes horribly awry, Jerry ends up accidentally having to kill her. It’s difficult to tiptoe around spoiling the hilarious and disturbing series of events. Once Jerry decides to really go off his medication is when things get worse.  His only friends are his cat Mr Whiskers and dog Bosco, who sound like a Scottish asshole and Gary Busey respectively (both voiced appropriately by Reynolds). They play as his devil and angel on the shoulders in theory.  Then they begin to have the same opinion that Jerry is a certifiable serial killer…which is really just convincing himself…it’s tough to explain.

I caught Reynolds in Atom Egoyan’s The Captive late last year and was reminded how good the guy is at being a dramatic actor. Here he gets to play up both sides of his acting chops with drama and comedy, and he absolutely KILLS it. He gives mental illness a realistic approach, empathetic without being eye rolling, and knows how to play charming and dangerous in equal portions that the role demands. It’d be a shame not to give major notice to his animal personalities as well, essentially giving life to three separate characters with fully realized personalities. Anna Kendrick is also a stand-out damsel in distress, and the gorgeous Gemma Arterton’s bratty character is adorably deplorable, and later quite amusing as a reflection of Jerry’s many voices in his head.

Is The Voices an easy pass along to other people? Not at all. I have no clue if the movie would work for someone else as it did for me, but I’m aware of many glowing reviews out there aside from mine that would urge you to give it a shot. As I said, there’s nothing quite like this movie. Director Marjane Satrapi, most well known for 2007’s fantastic animated oddball Persepolis, has crafted a very strange flick that manages to walk a tightrope between tone and genre, and manages to make the mostly unlikable characters likable despite their icky natures. Michael R Perry’s script is a lot of fun, too. Who knows where reality begins and where Jerry’s imagination really begins. What exactly, if anything, happens the way that we see it? Is the whole film just a cracked mirror view of Jerry’s reality? You could get lost in this rabbit hole if you wanted to, but I don’t know if the movie is intended as something so deep. The Voices is definitely more black comedy than it is a horror flick, so keep that in mind before watching and don’t expect a bloodbath. Think of me as a voice in your head, and I’m telling you to watch this one. Don’t hold it against yourself if you don’t care for it.